TowersStreet Progress Discussion

[Danny]

This seems to be happening quite a bit in Shoutbox for me today.

Not sure if this is just on Chrome or other browsers.

 

[Thomas]

Just a quick thought on the new pages, I understand that they aren't done, but will you be adding any more visuals to the page? Just some photos or even the graphics similar to those used on the news articles would really break the page up and make it more enjoyable to read!

 

[Ian]

We plan to be adding lots of lovely photos to the pages in the near future. Some of our Team members are busy beavering away, getting photos and images ready to be added to the site.

If anyone has any photos they'd like to submit to us to use on the site contact a Team member, as we're always grateful of new content

 

[Sam]

I'm assuming that the largest part of the site in development here is the content being written, but will we be seeing the content released to the site in stages, or will there be a wait now until most things are written and there is a big "launch" as such?

Only that it would be really cool if there could be a release as soon as a section is ready, so we could potentially see the attraction pages online without the wait on the F&B pages being written. It would really stir up some more momentum and would mean you could get feedback on individual aspects of the site sooner rather than later

I'd just like to echo what Jordan said a few days ago. It seems you're making good progress up bringing the site online, and I urge you to continue!

TS is in a critical window of momentum. I'd say we really need to have a full site partially launched in the next week, or we will start to lose that momentum, which could be fatal. Don't wait till it's all complete and polished, just upload something as soon as it's done!

I'm only saying this as there was a little bit of a perfectionist attitude at TTF, which I felt hampered the improvement of the site a bit. Speedy incremental changes are better than waiting and waiting for big updates.

 

[BigDave]

It depends on how you look at it, but the "meet the team" page, some content is a little rude and if you are a new member, you could take it the wrong way. I personally see the funny side, just not sure others will.

 

[Ian]

The Meet the Team page was just meant to be a bit of fun in which each team member wrote a bit about themselves (Or had it wrote on their behalf in some cases... ). Like with the site content we aimed for a more relaxed and casual attitude to it, rather than being uptight and strictly conducted.

Personally, I'd hope it helps make the Team feel more approachable for members, and not as if they are just talking to some random person on the Internet. But instead know a bit about them on a personal level, and feel like that can just drop a PM to them if they want to know anything or have an issue. It's just an attempt to make the experience more personal for members, rather than make them feel like we're all faceless names which string posts together and keep people in order

 

[Alastair]

Just thought I'd say, I'm not really keen on the new forum icons - it's no longer as clear when there is a new reply on a board or not. I preferred the old new reply - purple, no new reply - grey scheme. You could glance at that and know instantly whether there's any new posts.

Perhaps they could be redesigned in that vein?

 

[delta79]

I have also spotted the slang and a little bit of rudeness within the meet the team page. the rudeness is pointed toward themselves and seems to be in context.

I do see BigDave point that someone may take it the wrong way, if they don't have the right sense of humour, and don't take it in the way it's intended. but we need to think how big is that group on the net?

 

[Sam]

I fully support keeping the Team page as it is. It's funny, and gives the site character. Also, if it's offensive to anyone, it's incredibly mild. Like a PG on the offensiveness rating. Keep it as it is.

 

[James]

I don't see the rudeness? It's not like we've said "so-and-so has been a fan of Alton Towers since 2008, just before the place got ruined by a crap corporate company that talk out their arse and don't know what they are doing".

It's just a light hearted page by us so those who visit know who we are and know that we are just an informal team, friendly, approachable and have a sense of humour. I shown the page to one of my friends. They aren't a fan of Alton, don't get any of the jokes. But they still liked the team member page, mainly due to the fact that is is very casual and in a way, welcoming.

 

[Rowe]

I've just looked at the Team page and I honestly find nothing wrong with it, there's literally nothing offensive or demeaning to anybody that I can find. Of course different people see different things in terms of offence but honestly the Team page is perfectly adequate and sums up the attitude they all hold in real life; Laid back, relaxed, humourous and welcoming. It would take away the community image if it was just corporate and serious!

Edit: Been meaning to bring this up, does anybody else see the proto-TS logo on the forum?

 

[Joel]

It will be your browser clinging onto the old cached versions of the icons, a quick refresh will fix it, or it will fix itself once the old image expires in your browser cache

 

[Joel]

Just thought I'd say, I'm not really keen on the new forum icons - it's no longer as clear when there is a new reply on a board or not. I preferred the old new reply - purple, no new reply - grey scheme. You could glance at that and know instantly whether there's any new posts.

Perhaps they could be redesigned in that vein?

I've tried to distinguish the icons a little further by making the "no new posts" icon a little lighter in colour to give a stronger representation upon glancing now.

 

[Jordan]

Great job on the site release!

A few sporadic bits of feedback from first impressions: it seems a little hard to read large paragraphs of text, but I'm not sure if that's due to the typeface or the height of the lines.

This is more of a general observation, and it may well be just me, but it seems as if some of the content is written in quite a long-form chatty style, like "Rest assured though", "of course" and "being launched at 80kph by Rita into driving rain isn't particularly pleasant, even for most die hard rollercoaster fans!" (to pick a few choice excerpts from the weather page). I do wonder how much shorter you could make the page if you chose to drop that writing style in favour of a more direct style which is less hedgy - such as replacing things like "chances are" with "often". I know that's really picky. But i feel like it makes for easier reading content and people can get the answers they need quicker.

Also, I know that it's a lot of faff to keep up with the constant price increases, but would it be possible to have a price table on the Tickets & Entry page? The page seems a bit redundant otherwise, as you'd have to cross-reference it against the prices on the official website anyway to understand the ticket options available.

But this is really good progress! You've created so much momentum and it's fantastic to see it continue

 

[Alastair]

Just thought I'd say, I'm not really keen on the new forum icons - it's no longer as clear when there is a new reply on a board or not. I preferred the old new reply - purple, no new reply - grey scheme. You could glance at that and know instantly whether there's any new posts.

Perhaps they could be redesigned in that vein?

I've tried to distinguish the icons a little further by making the "no new posts" icon a little lighter in colour to give a stronger representation upon glancing now.

Much better thanks

 

[Alastair]

Edit: Been meaning to bring this up, does anybody else see the proto-TS logo on the forum?

This is happening to me as well, however only the "new posts" image does it - when it's "no new posts" I see the new icon.

 

[Joel]

It will be your browser clinging onto the old cached versions of the icons, a quick refresh will fix it, or it will fix itself once the old image expires in your browser cache

 

[Mike]

Ive noticed Joel likes trees

(Psssst, 'TowersStree' needs a 't' in the ticker/on the homepage )

 

[Niques]

I don't know if this has been brought up yet but, on the interactive height guide, I was browsing to see what rides my Niece could go on (She's currently 0.9m) and it brought up a list of rides that she 'wasn't tall enough' for. The list included most childrens attractions i.e. Squirrel Nutty etc, I thought this strange so went on Towers actual website and found she is tall enough to ride as long as she is with an adult.

I know it's probably obvious to most, but it really confused me at first. I think perhaps 'tall enough to ride with an adult' should be made into a seperate list rather than just showing those rides under 'not tall enough to ride' (as they are now).

 

[Ian]

Odd, I thought it broke down into four categories...

Rides your height is OK for
Rides you need to be accompanied with an adult for
Rides you are not tall enough for
Rides you are too tall for

Something must be going wrong somewhere. We'll look into it